J.K. Rowling Voted Most Inspiring Briton Alive, And How Real-Life British Spies Stopped The Books From Being Leaked Early


J.K. Rowling, the author best known for giving the world the Harry Potter books, has had her own wizards guarding her book. Her sixth book in particular was guarded by British spies from being leaked, according to Daily Mail.

The Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) stepped in to prevent the possibility that parts of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince could be leaked to the public prior to the official release of the book. They worked with the book’s publishers, Bloomsbury Publishing, to establish whether the myriad of versions appearing online were genuinely leaked excerpts of the real manuscript or fakes.

Daily Mail reported that publisher Nigel Newton was approached by the GCHQ back in 2005 regarding one particular book appearing online that purported to be a genuine copy of J.K. Rowling’s book.

“I got them to read a page to our editor and she said, ‘No, that’s a fake’.”

The demand for J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books was so unprecedented that fans still can’t seem to get enough of anything to do with the Harry Potter universe. In fact, according to People, J.K. Rowling’s writing chair recently sold for nearly $400,000 at auction.

The exact price of the chair was a whopping $394,000, and it was sold at a New York auction earlier this month. J.K. Rowling had used that same chair to start the Harry Potter series, as she told the story of how it was from that chair that she penned both The Sorcerer’s Stone and The Chamber of Secrets. The anonymous buyer of the chair bid a price far beyond the expectations of the seller, Gerald Gray. The chair had a few personal touches by Rowling herself, with “Harry Potter” and “Gryffindor” written on it, along with a less subtle “I wrote Harry Potter on this chair.” She originally auctioned the chair to charity for $21,000. On the chair, a personal note was found written by J.K. Rowling addressed to whomever the chair would find its way to.

“Dear new-owner-of-my-chair. I was given four mismatched dining room chairs in 1995 and this was the comfiest one, which is why it ended up stationed permanently in front of my typewriter, supporting me while I typed out Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. My nostalgic side is quite sad to see it go, but my back isn’t.”

J.K. Rowling inspired the imagination of children all over the world with her books and in return, children all over the world want to be just like her, which is proven by the number of young adults who never want to give up on their dreams. According to Morley Observer & Advertiser, J.K. Rowling topped a poll on the most inspiring Britons alive.

The inspirations and ambitions of the British public were the main targets of the poll in question, and it was conducted to launch the 2016 Festival of Learning, an initiative from Learning & Work Institute which aims to encourage Britons to further their education. The festival is backed by Department of Business, Innovation, and Skills and the European Social Fund.

Stephen Evans from the Learning and Work Institute spoke on the results of the poll.

“It’s great that so many people polled are inspired to learn to try new things or work toward their dream job. But we also know that too many people miss out on the life-changing opportunities that learning brings. Learning isn’t just something that happens in a classroom, and it shouldn’t stop when you leave school.”

One of the most important findings of the poll is that 76 percent of British adults still will not give up on finding their dream job. This is all thanks to J.K. Rowling and her influential career as an author. People take inspiration from the knowledge that J.K. Rowling never gave up on making her dream come true and use that knowledge to follow their own dreams.

[Photo by Danny E. Martindale/Getty Images]

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